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That James M. Cain was a genius is never more evident than when you watch other authors try to make a character's participation in his own degradation and his eager embrace of certain doom seem plausible. In Ian McEwan's Comfort of Strangers, an unhappy British couple, Colin and Mary, are in the moidst of a perfectly horrid vacation in Venice when they meet Robert, a cheesy seeming, imitation disco king, Eurotrash, local bar owner. He takes them under his wing and tells them the brutal but very amusing story of growing up with a domineering father who favors him and several bitterly jealous sisters. Later he takes them back to meet his rather ephemeral, somewhat crippled wife, who tells them, as they are leaving, that she is Robert's prisoner. For no apparent reason, this encounter rekindles the passion between Colin and Mary, though they studiously avoid discussing the episode and seek to avoid any subsequent meetings with Robert. Inevitably, they do eventually see him again and the results are predictably ugly. Stories like this one, which require the reader to suspend disbelief as the actors venture further and further into the abyss are extremely hard to pull off, so it's not surprising that McEwan doesn't quite manage it. First off, Colin and Mary are so unsympathetic that, as in The Sheltering Sky which it in some ways resembles, we eagerly await the tourists getting their just desserts. More troubling, Robert, despite his one captivating story, is so obviously shady that Colin and Mary seem totally stupid for getting involved with him. An author can get away with making his characters naive, but at the point where the reader is yelling at them and calling them idiots for following along with the novel's plot, that author has lost control of his own narrative. On the upside, the book offers further proof, as if any was needed, of the fundamental wisdom of the Time Zone Rule. This holds that you should never, ever, under any circumstances, leave the Eastern Time Zone of the United States. (Reviewed:) Grade: (C-) Tweet Websites:-AUTHOR SITE: IanMcewan.com -WIKIPEDIA: Ian McEwan -BIO: Ian McEwan (British Council) -ENTRY: Ian McEwan: British author,/a> (Encyclopaedia Britannica) -AUTHOR PAGE: Ian McEwan (Penguin) AUDIO ESSAY: Wrestling with Orwell: Ian McEwan on the art of the political novel (Audio Long Reads, from the New Statesman) -ESSAY: We are haunted by ghosts – and Vladimir Putin’s sickly dreams (Ian McEwan, 3/05/22, The Guardian) -ESSAY: George Orwell outside the whale: What the writer teaches us about politics and the imagination in a time of crisis. (Ian McEwan, 12/09/21, Spectator) -INTERVIEW: Ian McEwan, The Art of Fiction No. 173 (Interviewed by Adam Begley, ISSUE 162, SUMMER 2002, Paris Review) - -FILMOGRAPHY: Ian McEwan (IMDB) -ARCHIVES: Ian McEwan (The Guardian) -FILMOGRAPHY: Ian McEwan (Film Reference) -Featured Author: Ian McEwan: With News and Reviews From the Archives of The New York Times -WIKIPEDIA: Amsterdam -EXCERPT: Chapter One of Amsterdam -ESSAY: Brexit, the most pointless, masochistic ambition in our country's history, is done (Ian McEwan, 1 Feb 2020, The Guardian) -READING GUIDE: Amsterdam (Super Summary) -READING GUIDE (BCCLS) -READING GUIDE: Amsterdam (Book Browse) -READING GUIDE: Amsterdam Reader’s Guide (Penguin Random House) -BOOK CLUB: Booker club: Amsterdam by Ian McEwan: Characters without personality, comedy without mirth – how McEwan's worst novel won the Booker is a deep mystery Ian McEwan (The Guardian, 6 Dec 2011, Sam Jordison) -ARTICLE: 'Amsterdam' by Ian McEwan Wins Booker Prize (SARAH LYALL, 10/28/1998, NY Times) -INTERVIEW: 'The Voice of Modern British Fiction' PW Talks with Ian McEwan (Andrew Rosenheim, Feb 25, 2005, Publishers Weekly) -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Ian McEwan Interview: How We Read Each Other (Louisiana Channel, Mar 12, 2014) -VIDEO INTERVIEW: Author Ian McEwan talks about his latest novel, “Amsterdam,” for which he was awarded the 1998 Booker Prize (Charlie Rose, 01/25/1999) -PROFILE: Ian McEwan's Humorous Path To `Amsterdam' (Sylvia Rubin, Feb. 3, 1999, SF Chronicle) -INTERVIEW: Ian McEwan, The Art of Fiction No. 173 (Interviewed by Adam Begley, SUMMER 2002, Paris Review) -PROFILE: McEwan recounts his missteps (Corydon Ireland, April 18, 2012, Harvard Gazette) -PROFILE: The End of Innocence (DAPHNE MERKIN, MARCH 10, 2002, LA Times) -ESSAY: The Fivesquare "Amsterdam" of Ian McEwan (ROBERT E. KOHN, 2004, Critical Survey) -ESSAY: Reasons to read Ian McEwan, and the ones to avoid: Five of the best, and three of the worst (Eileen Battersby, 9/28/14, Irish Times) -ESSAY: Human (In)Consistencies in Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam (Florentina Anghel, December 2016, Romanian Journal of English Studies) -ESSAY: Question of Reception Ethics: Amity and Animosity in Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam (Jen-chieh Tsai, Intergrams) -ESSAY: The Ethical And Moral Dilemma As Reflected In Ian Mcewan‘s Amsterdam (S.Manikandan, Dr.F.Suji Brindha Theodore, The International journal of analytical and experimental modal analysis) -ESSAY: Behind the Scenes: A Study of Denial and Hypocrisy in Ian McEwan’s AMSTERDAM (Darintip Chansit, 1/01/13, Thoughts) - - -ARCHIVES: "amsterdam" (The Millions) -VIDEO ARCHIVES: Ian McEwan (You Tube) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam by Ian Mcewan (WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD, NY Times Book Review) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Michiko Kakutani, NY Times) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Nicholas Lazard, The Guardian) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Charles Wyrick, Book Page) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (The Complete Review) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Publishers Weekly) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Craig Seligman, Salon) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Valentina Dordevic, Booksist) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Michael Dirda, Washington Post) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Alain de Botton, Independent) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (The Modern Novel) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (All Writes) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Bartleby) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Victoria Pritchard, Everything Express) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Reading Matters) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Andrew Blackman) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Bob Corbett, Webster.edu) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (C G Fewston) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (Peter Mathews, English Literature Today) -REVIEW: of Amsterdam (We Need to Talk About Books) -REVIEW: of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Daphne Merkin, NY Sun) Book-related and General Links: Recommended books by Ian McEwan :
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